Events Series, Part 4: How to Protect Your Safety & Sanity at Events & Conferences

Somebody has to start talking about this. So we decided to. This is Part 4 of our cross-posted four-part series on conferences and events with Steph Rubio — and we’re ending with the conversation most business event spaces avoid: Event safety.

Physical safety.Emotional safety.Ethical safety.

If you attend women’s entrepreneurship conferences, networking events, masterminds, or live business retreats, this episode is essential.

Because just because an event is beautifully branded, women-led, or marketed as empowering does not automatically mean it’s safe.

This conversation isn’t about fear. It’s about discernment and empowerment.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why safety isn’t guaranteed just because it’s a women’s event

• Conference red flags most people overlook

• Emotional manipulation disguised as “transformation”

• When event marketing crosses into misrepresentation

• How to create a personal safety plan before you attend

• Why you always have permission to leave, disengage, or say no

• The nuance of supporting other women without compromising your integrity

• How your reputation is connected to what you publicly promote

This episode closes a larger conversation about event ROI, integrity, and responsibility — for attendees, hosts, and community leaders.

Because supporting women in business does not mean blind loyalty.

It means supporting safety. Transparency. Accountability. And sometimes that requires discernment without drama.

Steph and I structured this as a cross-posted series between our two podcasts!

LISTEN IN ORDER:

Part 1: Practical Tips You Can Use to Choose Events that Make Sense for YOUListen on Rooted & Relentless

🔗 On Apple: ⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rooted-relentless/id1821487374⁠⁠

🔗 On Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/7A6B4bZZXOU0IOduXDSxXJ?si=794bfbf6a12b4788⁠⁠

Part 2: How to Be a Standout Attendee & Actually Realize A ROI🔗 On Apple:

⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-power-table-with-taylor-smith/id1775769731⁠

🔗 On Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4q9nlArV18b80rwqtIV2ik?si=6ca4396028474f22⁠

Part 3: How Event Hosts Can Act with Integrity & Provide a Stellar Stakeholder ExperienceListen on Rooted & Relentless

🔗 On Apple: ⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rooted-relentless/id1821487374⁠⁠

🔗 On Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/7A6B4bZZXOU0IOduXDSxXJ?si=794bfbf6a12b4788⁠⁠

Part 4: Protect Your Safety & Sanity at Events(You’re here!)

If you care about maximizing ROI from conferences, building reputation in the room, and leveraging networking events strategically — don’t skip this series.

MORE:

SAVE the date for our 2026 conference, The Power Table LIVE! It's April 22-23, 2026 in Destin, Florida. Get your ticket here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thepowertable.co/conference⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Join The Power Table Mastermind: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thepowertable.co/mastermind⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

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Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Girlfriends, let's step into a part of the conversation that rarely gets talked about publicly when it comes to attending events and conferences. How to protect your own safety and sanity at events. If you clicked on this episode because the title grabbed your attention or someone sent it to you, hi, my name is Taylor Smith, and I am the host of the Power Table Podcast. This is a four-part cross-posted series or podcast collaboration between myself and the Power Table Podcast and the Rooted and Relentless Podcast, hosted by my friend, fellow business leader and community leader as well, Steph Rubio. So you will actually find episode one on the Rooted and Relentless Podcast, Steph's podcast. In episode one, we covered practical tips that you can use to choose the right rooms that make sense for you, your goals, and your business. In episode two, we actually bounced back here to the Power Table podcast, and we talked about how to be a standout attendee and actually realize an ROI from attending conferences. And then part three, yesterday's episode, if you're listening to this in real time, was over on Rooted and Relentless. And this episode, we spoke directly to event hosts, and we talked about how event hosts can act with integrity and provide a stellar experience for every single stakeholder involved in events, including attendees, speakers, sponsors, and other community partners. So if you haven't listened to those three episodes, you're going to click the link in the show notes below this episode. You are going to go over to Steph's podcast, Rooted and Relentless, and start at episode one, and then continue through the series from there, hopping back and forth from Rooted and Relentless to the power table. And now let's go ahead and get into today's episode. A part of the events conversation that is almost never talked about because it is controversial, and that is safety. Physical safety, emotional safety, psychological safety. Just because an event is beautifully branded or women-led or marketed as empowering does not automatically mean that it is safe for you. This episode today is not about gossip. It's not about a takedown. We're not naming names. It's about discernment. This episode is not meant to scare you away from attending events. It is not meant to talk bad about the events industry. It's actually to equip you and empower you to understand what you might experience in the room based on many of the stories that Steph and I share of real life experiences that, quite frankly, some of the things that I share in this episode should never have happened in the women's entrepreneur and business event space, but they have, they're real. And this episode is about leadership. I want to share with you, help you understand that it is okay to have this conversation, to know what to expect, to equip you with tools, and to show that in particular, if you are coming to the power table live, we hold our event and our team to a very high standard. And we want you to know that when you walk in, that we are treating your investment, your time to be there, and you personally with intention and care and a great amount of responsibility. And before we begin the final part of this podcast, I do want to give you just a quick heads up and a bit of a trigger warning. In this episode, we talk about safety concerns at events, including harassment, emotional manipulation, unethical sales tactics, and situations where people have felt physically unsafe. We don't go into graphic detail, but if you have had difficult experiences in rooms before or because of other situations in your life, this conversation may bring some things up for you. You have full permission to pause, skip ahead, or come back later. I hope this conversation is empowering for you. So let's get into it. Okay, Steph, can we get controversial for a minute?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Yeah, we warned people we would, so let's do it. So there was going to be some sensitivity to this, and this certainly is. I want to ask you another question about safety because it's come to my attention at times as I again I'm starting to enter our event circuit in the space even more and plan to do it even more this year. And it all it took was one time for me to be disappointed in the effort I made for an event. It only took one time before I changed how I approached them. I was like, nope, not doing that again. So how do I pay attention? And since then, the moment you pay attention, um, it's come to my attention. I'm overusing that word now, that like there could be safety concerns, and there have been at times for events. So what does safety even mean when you're talking about like and beyond just physical safety, because that's also important, but all of it. What does it mean? And how can we assess that in advance, if at all, that's going to be safe for us to attend?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Oh, it's such a hard one. Um, and I'm gonna I'm gonna share some stories because I think that people need to understand this, like very transparently. This kind of stuff really does happen. Um, and I share it almost more because some of it is unknown and you will not know ahead of time. And so the best thing you that I could do would be to make people aware, hey, this kind of stuff does happen so that you feel a little bit more prepared about what you could experience and know that it is not your fault, and you didn't necessarily make a bad decision if if something were to come up. So I'll I'll touch on a couple of examples, and one of those, like maybe we just start with physical safety. Like, yeah, I've been in events where I like a women's entrepreneur event where there was a man in the room who was drunk high and physically and sexually harassing women at the bar, the bar that was provided for VIP attendees. That never should have happened.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

No.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

And I later found out that people knew it was going to happen, which is appalling on so many levels. And it put me and other women there in a place where we were actually physically unsafe to be there, even though it was a crowd, even though it was a room full of people. Like you could try to say, like, oh, it was fine, nothing happened, but it could have happened. And I'll be honest, like most of us as women were attending the events alone, right? Traveling by ourselves. Yep. Like my husband all like wants to know, like, hey, let me know when you got back to your hotel room. I share my rides in the Uber. Like I have the notification where it tells him when I get an Uber and there's an actual tracker. So making sure that you are physically safe when you're there is so important. And recognizing that um not everything is gonna be within your control, but also that other people might not be providing as much care for your safety as you think they should be, um, which is devastating, but like I want to be honest about that. Um, and then the second thing is emotional safety. So there are many events in which event hosts take the approach of playing to your emotions in order to make a sale. And in that room, there's there's a lot of factors there, right? Like we want people to have a very successful transformation and see what's possible and see themselves as a bigger, bolder version and see that they are capable of doing really incredible things. So their events carry in person carries a lot of emotion inherently. But there are also plenty of people who will play on that and use it to manipulate you for a sale. And I think this is incredibly unethical, and I've seen it happen. I've been to multiple business events where I investigated the sales page, I went through their content, I had no reason to believe that I was walking into an event that was inherently religious when it had been a marketing conference, is how it was set up. And this is not against anyone's faith. Right. But I was blindsided, right? And I've been to events where we were asked in the room to complete an assessment where we were asked questions like, Have you ever had an eating disorder? Have you ever been a victim of assault? Have you ever considered taking your own life? That kind of questionnaire has no place in a business event.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

No, a mental health counseling event or a room with a male a counselor, and that's about it. That's appalling. Holy smoke.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

It's appalling and it's frequent. And when I told someone else, hey, I went to this event and this happened, sh my friend said, Oh yeah, I also went to this other event and they do that there too. So this is not a one-off thing. And the point of this was to recognize that you can let go of that and move into who you want to be. That's you don't pull back layers of trauma in like 30 minutes and an exercise in a room full of strangers that you've just met. That's unethical. And like to be honest, open that host up to a lawsuit. But I share this to say like this is part of the reality and not to scare anybody off. Like, please attend events, they can substantially help your business. And to recognize that you need to be prepared for what might happen in the room and to be able to give yourself those tools of, you know, what would I do if I felt uncomfortable? Would I step out? Would I text someone? Do I need to kind of disassociate a little bit and just kind of like focus on my notes and like kind of step away from the speaker? Um, and it could be also that speakers might have a triggering story. Like maybe it actually is not a sales tactic, but it could just be a story that someone's telling that feels a little bit unsafe. So I think that um, you know, just thinking through how how do I want to react if I'm feeling unsafe or if I'm feeling maybe just on edge. I have anxiety from traveling. I have anxiety because my family member is sick at home. You know, and how can I take care of me in that moment and still achieve my goals in the room?

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yeah, permission to put yourself first always, like always, um, at the end of the day, because you can't pull off anything else. And as women, boy, this is hard. But everything else is depending on you. That room and that goal in that room, that family back at home, your business, all of that depends on your ability to put yourself first at times when that's necessary. Uh, and that's what you're describing here, is especially in those moments, like, what do you need in that moment? Like you mentioned, someone could have a triggering story because I know my own personal story that I have not even scratched the surface on telling has triggering components to it. As a host and the person giving that, familiarize yourself with trigger warnings. You know, there's little tiny things you can do. And so what stood out to me was care. When you're approaching from a place of care and like planning, and part of planning is like, what does how does everything affect the next? You could say two things can be true. Like, I can have someone on my stage that has this very triggering story because people need to hear this and that outcome and feel that there is, you know, that light on the other side, and also acknowledge that they need to know that that's about to come, and you giving them permission to step out of the room might be all they need to actually step out of the room and put themselves first. So it's like thinking through that care, which is hard to do if you're trying to plan an event in a month, because you have to take the time to think through every single angle and how the entire experience is going to affect someone. Um, it's not often that I'm under speechless, but some of these examples, like it it reminds me of why we're doing this, like why we're having this conversation because people need to know. And there are things that I just don't um it's not okay. Like the physical fee freaks me out. We shouldn't be in that place to start with, but I thank you for like elevating very real examples of where it's happened for you so that people because you just can't know. That event's not going to come with a warning label that there might be someone that's going to physically harass you. So if you find yourself in that place, in that position, what can you do about it? Is one you can address that person and that host, and that would be very uncomfortable and awkward. But I take the extreme that you shouldn't be in that position and the people around you shouldn't be either, because some people have a voice and some people don't because of their own past traumas. None of us should need a voice in that, but some people do. So what you do with it, um, like I could see my visceral reaction to something like this is making the event very awkward very quickly. Um, but you just never know until you're in that position, and no one should be. So just elevating this and talking about it, giving people permission to put themselves first, because I have thoughts that we're going to talk about today on like, you know, how to commit to events and things like that. And I want to make it very clear that no commitment matters more than like your safety and well-being, and that's physical and mental. And we all have a duty to ourselves to hold that boundary, because as you just proved with examples, other people aren't always going to hold that as as closely as we will to ourselves. Um, and then I just want to like touch on the religious piece again because same. Um, like I not the event itself, but I want to reiterate, make it clear that I didn't feel when you said that that you were like it was religion, what the heck? It was more of like we started this conversation by talking about clearly articulating the promise and the plan for your event. And if it's going to be a marketing event, and now, Taylor, you have decided to go because you you are heading a whole marketing machine over here and helping people do it, and then you show up at something completely different, that's unethical. That's misalignment, and you made a decision based on what you expected, and again, left some of your business, like you went with a purpose, and now you suddenly can't meet that purpose, and you put forth the effort to make a decision that was best for you in your business to reach those goals we talked about, and you show up and that opportunity was taken from you because it was misleading, and that's unfair.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

I think the online coaching industry over the past year has really begun to see a reckoning with these kind of misleading coaching programs and non-delivery or, you know, um non-performance within coaching. And I also think that event hosts who are not delivering or who are misleading or substantially um deviating from what they initially promised people or how their event was marketed. It's coming. It's coming for those event hosts too. And people eventually, once they become more aware that there are high-quality events that stand by the results who have a have long-term planning in place and can actually deliver. And then there are those who are just trying to make more sales and trying to do something they think looks cute and looks good on their Instagram. Like they people will begin to say something and it will become clear and obvious. But I really think we're also at the beginning of the conversation because there's so much fear and hesitation around if I say something, it looks like I'm not supporting another woman.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Well, I live to support other women and historically underrepresented groups. I mean, I live for a couple other things too, but mostly like that's literally the mission of my business. But I do not support people who put others at risk. Intentionally or unintentionally. Um, physical safety, mental safety. So, yes, I hear you. I think right at the beginning of the conversation because it's scary to tackle it, it's always scary to have any kind of controversial conversation because of like a backlash or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Do you think there's room for supporting when your values don't align with an event or a person? And if so, what do you think that support looks like?

SPEAKER_01 16:15

I'm sliding down here to think on this one. Um This is so nuanced because, and we've started to, as suspected, like poke this one a little bit, I think, in this entire conversation. But I want to be clear first that values are a little bit different than ethical and way different than than fraudulent behavior, right? And values and ethics shouldn't be that differing here. But that's the approach I think here, because like it's not always ethical versus unethical with values. As and as an example, a lot there are like integrity is one of my values, and I know something similar is one of yours. That if you lack integrity to the to any degree, just about, uh, as some of the examples we've given today, then I'm not like this is I want to say just ask me in a year, because right now maybe I'm feeling a little too feisty. Ask me again in a year. Because that right now I say no, and maybe that's a little too harsh because I can't think of a way that if it's like that misaligned, if it's fraudulent, if it's safety hazard, that I can support you in any way. I don't want people to come to your event because I'm actually concerned about them. Not only that, like they've taken the time to come to your event, you know, because I think about me, what it takes for me to go. We talked about this and didn't even get into it, but I have two young children, have a husband who can self-sustain at least, and a disabled brother who can't. And so what it takes for me just to plan to leave my home for two to three or four days at a time is a lot. Um, and my kid telling me, you know, that she doesn't want me to go on any work more work events and she's six, you know, that weighs heavily, and I still do it. And I explained these to her and it's fine. That's all great. But that means that what I come to get, I need to get. And if that like thinking through what people are coming to your event for, you know, it comes back to me of like if the values differ, I put so much into it. And if I come there and there's a safety hazard, no. And and then even if I don't, I can't support your event. So if it's one of those where I'm like, I can't be sure, like your marketing is a little whack. I don't think the outcome is actually gonna be because you don't even know what the outcome is. So it doesn't make sense for me, is one thing. But if there's a safety hazard, no, I can't um recommend people come. I I want to think about the religion one too. So, like very specific examples help me here too. Like, I don't practice a religion, and I also don't care if you do, like that doesn't bother me. I work with people who do all of the time. But when you give an example, like you did, Taylor, of like you were going to the event you thought was one thing and it ended up being something entirely different, that's unethical, but and our values are misaligned because I don't like practice that religion, you know, and you had this religious event, right? But if I knew what it was and I knew people, like if I knew it was gonna be a religious event and I knew people who practice that religion and it was a great match, because like it's religious in your sprinkling and some marketing, I'd be happy supporting you and like recommending people go. So it's like there's not a hard and fast answer for me. I was like, is there still room to support? It's nuanced because it depends on the type of value that's misaligned, and if we're talking about ethical and unethical safety or not safety. So the other part is what we talked about. If we even take it out of ethics, and we talked about like poor planning and poor communication and the reflect on the like my reputation because of that. So if I'm like a speaker, you know, coming to an event and I've put my name on it and I've advertised it, and now people are coming as a result. One, two, ten, and they show up and they don't know where to go. And they expected they had the opportunity to meet 50 or 100 people and they had the opportunity to meet 20. That reflects on me, and I don't take that shit lightly, quite frankly, because I care about my reputation, but not only from a reputation and revenue standpoint, I just care. And I put in a lot to plan. Everything we just described, like project plans, I take such a level of care that it's already hard to work with people who don't do that. I've learned that a lot over the past year. That's already difficult. But then to put my name on it and let other people come because of that and their experience be affected. That's what I'm kind of sitting through right now. And looking at the year ahead is what level of support I can give someone like that. So again, it's not unethical. It's like you overcommitted yourself. You added it as a part of your offer suite, and you can't actually execute and pull it off in the way that you planned, and that still reflects on me and my people that I put a lot of work into caring for and getting them what they need, because at the end of the day, they're not a dollar sign for me. They are women and people trying to live a life that they love and using their business to do that, and you are now directly prohibiting them from doing that, and I take issue with it, whether it was intentional or not. But when it comes to unethical, never like ripping off, and and I don't just mean the safety, the unethical problematic. Like I said, I still don't know what I'm labeling that one, so come back in a year on that one too. But ripping off other people's intellectual property, copying their copying their marketing. No, that's unethical to me. Um, so I don't want to support you knowingly having an unsafe person. The only way I can support you in that that I can think of right now is guiding you, you as the event host, then coaching you as the event host to do better for your people and to provide a great stakeholder experience and shed light on this problematic behavior because maybe in the off chance your ethical radar just isn't the same as mine and no one's helped you yet. That's the only way. But supporting you by getting people in the room and putting my name on it, I can't. I can't.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Think this is the conversation that people need to hear. And it's it's so hard, I'll say. Like it's something that I've had an like huge awareness of over the past year as I began to realize the size and weight of my influence as a speaker, as an event host, as a community builder, and realizing that when I said I was going to an event to speak, attend, I bought a ticket. The minute I put it on my social media, someone in my community more than likely bought a ticket because of it. And that's so cool when it's aligned really well to like give women more opportunities to be in other rooms, new experiences, new perspectives, new connections. And it is devastating that I might have played a role in costing that person opportunity, time, money, self-doubt if the event wasn't aligned with my values or didn't execute well. And I've had that experience, and I've had to literally bear the cost of putting someone in a room that I didn't know that they were going to be emotionally unsafe and triggered in, or that I didn't know that that event said they had a hundred people and they had 30. And so that person didn't get the connections that they paid for. And that's been really, really hard. And I've still like you, I don't necessarily have a firm answer on well, how do I support the women who are asking for my support but aren't at a point where they have the ability or the care to deliver in a way that is aligned with my values. And I've been, I'm glad we're talking about this because I've been trying to decide like in what capacity could I support someone like that? Because the narrative in our industry is like, you're supposed to support all women all the time. Otherwise, you somehow don't support any of them. And I think it really comes down to like if you had a question about strategy, I can answer that for you. But you know, I can't associate my name with this. And trying to give the kindest no's possible. And you know, trying to make sure that that person isn't ghosted, right? That I'm not also not gossiping, right? Not sharing things that, you know, I don't ever want to speak poorly of someone just because we don't value a line. I think that's kindness and that's leadership too, is silence. Um, and not not always, like some situations do need to be shared, but there are many in which that isn't going to help anyone. And silence is a form of support. And choosing not to gossip and choosing to be discerning with what you say and when you say it, that also is a form of support. And then if there is a way that you can, you know, support that person, like I can't be a part of your event, but if you need support helping with your schedule, like I'm happy to take a look and give you some thoughts. Or if you have a planning question, you know, like I know you struggle with the organization of this, like that was a problem for your event last year. Like, if I'm happy to support you in that way, um I think trying to find ways that allow you to support without affecting your reputation and in the situations where that person might simply not be far far enough along or might have a capacity problem, and you can recognize that there might not be an ethical problem here, but there's uh some learning to do, right? And recognizing that you don't have to give everyone the same kind of support.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Agreed completely. Uh I wrote this and then you said it, shocker, or some version of it. Like your support can be silence or it can be just choosing not to support, which sounds crazy, but you are choosing not to then go tell people, which is very difficult to do. And you have to weigh as the person carrying this responsibility as a community leader, because that's what you are and what I am. Like we're leading our communities and they're making these decisions based off us, right? So we are associated either way. So rather than going to everyone now and saying, I can't put my name on this event, like this is why, poorly planned, blah, blah, blah. Choosing to just say, I'm not attending that event. And that's it, is a form of support. I would definitely like to say, like, if there are event hosts or people listening to this that still have follow-up questions or fill a little scene, my inbox is definitely always open because I love to help. It's just very difficult to go to people sometimes and say, I see, you know, three or four gaps here. Can I help? Um, I would like to, but I have also advised people to do that in the same case where people have come to me after events that fallen a little short, people in my community and were like, I saw these things. I wonder how they would take me approaching them. I'm like, there's one way to find out. Say I I had a couple of ideas like that I think could really help you things go off without a hitch next time. Are you open to them? You can always ask. Because I take it out again, take it out of the event hosting context altogether. And some of the best feedback I've gotten have been people willing to do that completely different context. But doing my first presentations, you know, and I had like the SVP of operations, and she came behind and was like, This was great. Can I give you some tips? She waited to let me say yes, you know, for that in, and then gave me a couple things that were like without a hitch, the old sandwich, you know, of like this was great, and this is this. Yeah, here's two or three things I think that will make it better next time. And I was really receptive to that, and it made me better. So you can, I think, support people. Um, but there's tears to this, it's certainly nuanced. And there are situations where I will write it off. I don't care to help you with your timeline or project plan if you don't care to keep your people safe, frankly.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Yeah. Exactly. Not willing. Yeah. Very case. Case by case.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Okay. As we wrap it up, you do have an event. I've talked about it several times, obviously. This is no secret to anybody. And since you host an event, I want to get really specific about yours. Like you've given, we've given an example of others, and I've mentioned the power table live, but as someone who's done this now several iterations and is in the middle, you said four to six months, and we're three three and a half months out. So you're literally in the middle of it right now. What did you intentionally choose not to do with your conference that other events default to, if anything?

SPEAKER_00 28:18

There are a lot of things, I think. Um, I'll start with I choose to put the result of the attendee as a priority over everything else. Most events, in my experience, event hosts, most women who host events are very creative people. They make the mistake of being obsessed or putting the top priority as the aesthetic, the details. They enjoy those. It's their comfort zone. Or, like you said, they're putting it, they're just creating another part of their funnel. Whereas at the power table live, our event is creative for the attendee. It's not creative for me, it's not creative for the speakers, and it has a leaving living, breathing community that exists outside of our other offers, outside of me. The number of connections that people get at the event for months and months to come afterwards is extraordinary, but it's also intentional. And it the event is designed so that whether someone ever bought an offer from me or one of the other speakers or not, they will walk away with what we've promised them, which is strategies and connections. And that exists separately, completely separately from any other part of the funnel, any other part of our marketing. And it has a whole ecosystem and community designed around it. And that that's what I think we do differently. That's really special.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Agreed. Agreed. Like that was already covered too, as we talked today. But I'm here, happy to hear you articulate the same thing that I've already given examples of of like that's why that differentiator, that care that you bring, and that North Star, as I like to call it, like your North Star is the outcomes and the experience for your attendees, right? It's theirs. Um, the results that they get and the transformation, like of what you're trying to take them through there. That's why people are at other events recommending Power Table Live to go to. That's why people are on social media saying that now when everyone's like, What are you going to in 2026? And I see Power Table Live pop up. But it's why they're at other people's events. And saying Power Table Live is because of that. They feel the care and they walk away with something. Whether that's clients, connections, whatever, I'm proof of that. Absolutely. I must still riding the high of some of those. And that was whatever backwards math, nine months or something ago. And you've proven that. And it makes a big difference. And that level of care is why people are coming back year after year, truly. If someone leaves the power table live and says, this felt different because they've been to a few conferences, what do you hope they mean by that?

SPEAKER_00 30:59

I hope that they mean that every person they met genuinely wanted them to succeed. And that they were as intent on pouring into other people at the event as they were receiving. And I'll expand on that a little bit because we have built this community so intentionally and so carefully, and we're obsessed. Like I'm obsessed with every detail on how people connect to each other at our event more than I care about how they connect with me. Like I yeah, that's great. I would love for everyone to connect with me. But the reality is, like, with 150 plus women in the room this year, I won't be able to talk to every person, even though I want to. That's a whole other topic on the on its own that makes me so sad. Like that, I love the growth and I hate the growth for that reason. But I'm obsessed with how other people connect to each other because of how much success can happen so quickly for entrepreneurs and particularly for women, when they're able to tap into the collective success of other people. They can borrow self-belief, they can talk to people who are so much farther ahead of them in their journey, which helps them avoid costly mistakes, which gives them ideas that change everything. And they also then have a support system. And so what I mean is like, I hope that people say this felt different because I hope they recognize that every person who bought a ticket to Power Table Live actually wants to see you win. And they are literally in the room saying, get out your laptop, like show me right now, I'll help you. Let's follow up two weeks from now online on a coffee chat. And I would love to share with you how I did this too. And that's what I know and I can confidently say is different about our room than other conferences.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Truly. Truly. And I can give you like expand beyond that and give specific examples because I experienced it myself, but I've heard other people explain this too about Power Table Live. And one thing that people valued so much about last year was like the integration with the speakers. There wasn't this big scary stage of these unreachable people. I was talking to speakers there and becoming their podcast guest before I ever left the room, right? And they cared about the conversation. Like they aren't these big, scary different people, and they are further ahead of me. And like you said, I left with tips and tools. And there's one other thing that I think is it to me, tell me if I'm wrong, was that that little extra I talk about that you did that I didn't expect walking in anyways. And it actually helped a lot there were the little tags that you had people put on, right? Like their lanyard, and then we could pick tags from a group that were like podcast guests, looking for podcast, like content creator, you know, I don't remember all of them, but you could put up to three, and now you were walking around with literally flags, right? To start and spark conversations in a room where you're like, you know, what you should be doing there is bumping up elbows and be like, how are you doing? You know, nice to meet you, and you're truly doing your network thing. But in case you just can't, or you're tired, you're on your 15th one person or something like that. Now you have this other connection point. And I don't know if you probably realize this, but those forced me to flex a little bit. It was like, I don't know if I would have called myself a content creator before that, but I wasn't a podcast host yet. As you know, it was the catalyst to launch mine three months later. So now I can put podcast podcast hosts on anything I did. But I was like, well, I am a content creator. I've been creating content for over a year now that inspires people, blah, blah, blah. So it made me feel included in a room where there were a lot of people, you know, running around with like podcast on there. And and and one thing that can make you feel like separate from them, it actually, you know, made me feel more included, I think. And those are some of the things that made, if I were to say on the other side of the lens, like that felt different because it did. No, I've been to several events. What do you hope I mean by that was that is that the connections I made, the people I described that I'm still connected with, even if I've never spent a dollar and I've since unsubscribed for their email list because I don't need what they're saying, even though I got it on the page, and I still recommend them, is because they had genuine conversations with me and they genuinely cared about me, and you feel that, and now you're suddenly linking arms slowly but surely with other women entrepreneurs who just get it and also care about your success on the other side. So that's why they'll say, pop up in the laptop and show me. Or like I can't think of anything that would make me happier than someone just like problem dumping on me.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

That's why I love that. Please tell me all your problems.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

I have a thousand ideas for you. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

Yeah. And you create intentional spaces so that folks can have those conversations and feel so good to just go ahead and do that. You know, instead of putting on this front of like, I have to be this shiny business owner, I need the business, and I have to present, I have to do these things because it feels intentional the moment you walk in the room.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

I'm so glad you brought up the tags because that actually was one of the very first touch points as you arrived at the conference. And one, it was great data for me because we knew this is a little obsessive, but like I knew how many tags we had of each one. And I projected how many people I thought would choose con content creator, how many people I thought would be, you know, podcasting or seeking speaking. So I like, and then we went back and counted like how many people actually chose this label. So that's helping us gather data on interest and our audience. But more importantly than even just the data points was when people walked in and they saw all of those identifiers to choose from, it was showing them not just what do you want to choose for yourself, but who else is going to be in the room. And I wanted people to see there were three specific tags also that were intentional, that was brand new business owner, six-figure entrepreneur, seven-figure club. And I wanted women to see that there was space for every single one of those people. And I that way, later on stage, I'm like, hey, if you see someone with a new business owner tag, please go talk to them. Tell them they're welcome here. If you see someone with that seven-figure tag and you're not there yet, like those are the people that you want to be forming connections with and trying to build in those touch points and also show people, even from the very moment they walked in, what was possible and who their new circle of people actually was.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Exactly. You anticipated, like further than I've seen many people do, but we talked about this. Anticipate the needs and the wants and the dreams of the people that are about to come to your room and see how you can meet that need. And this is a way that you were extra in doing that, which has insanely affected your reputation, obviously. And I would imagine it is affecting your revenue if you have more people coming to your conference this year. So take care of your people, be ethical. Like I shouldn't have to say that, but here we are saying it. And I think we're gonna have to say more of that. Unfortunately, in the year or years to come, you've proven it and you are doing it. And that you can keep that community, you are, you're doing that. And that you can elevate that community, you are, you're doing that because you're intentional about anticipating what they even need and want. And the data point, I'm not even gonna get into that. We'll save it because I love data and I'm obsessed with the fact that you use that to be like, all right, I got your number, literally now. So good. Thank you for being willing to have this conversation, Taylor, for proposing it. Like, hey, I think this is another conversation we should have. Um, and being willing to because it's not lost on me like the weight that we carry, but it's uh we carry the weight. It's important for people to know this, so I don't mind a little too. The reason why we're having this conversation, we took it out of private when we realized we needed to have it ourselves between each other as like peers, friends, and collaborators that are consistently collaborating. We decided we had to bring it to our audience because we care so much, because of that weight that we've already mentioned several times. Is I know that there are people that are going to feel seen from this and not all in a good way. And I'm okay with that because the weight of the opposite is too much for me. I care too much about my people and what they're trying to achieve on the other side of the business that they're running and the lives that they lead to let them walk into not only dangerous situations, but also just a waste of time and money. We sacrifice too much, we leave families behind, and we spend money that we work our butts off. I spend time away from my family to work my butt off day to day to make that money, to then spend that money to go to events and meet more people. And I have expectations in return. And I wanted to elevate those expectations so people can do the same because I know my community is doing the same. I know it's full of mothers and women who already make less than men, you know, except that we're over here carving a way not to do that. Um, we started businesses so that we could break those limitations. And this conversation is one way that I feel sure I can help people a little further prevent some of those problematics or protect that time and energy that they work so hard for because I have to start doing it myself even more. And I realize that need. And I appreciate you being willing to have the conversation too.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Yeah, I appreciate this whole conversation. And I hope that also for people hearing this, they now feel empowered to ask more questions and to recognize that it is okay to say no to an attend event, um, especially when you feel that FOMO, and to recognize that it's okay if you are, you know, making intentional choices that are aligned with you and not necessarily aligned with other people. And hopefully we've just shed some more light on the industry as a whole. And like you said, Steph, like we we care so deeply at the end of the day, like every event is someone's sacrifice in some other area of their life. And it has an immense payoff if it's done really well, but it can also have a lot of consequences if it's not. And I hope that this helps people make better decisions in their process to get in the room in 2026.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Agreed. Same, 2026 and beyond, because we're just starting to have fun over here. Okay. If you have questions, concerns, follow-ups, want eyes, please. My DMs are always open at virtually underscore Steph Rubio on Instagram is the best place to find me and pop in and say whatever you need to say, truly. It's definitely a safe space. There is very little judgment. There is a lot of care. That's where all this is coming from. And Taylor, same for you. If someone, you know, if you're open to it, how do you want people to check in with you or leverage your expertise if the time comes? I know that you have several ways.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Yeah. Um, the best way I'd say just send me a DM directly on Instagram or LinkedIn. Personally, it's Taylor Smith Online, or if you want to learn more about our community and getting connected with the Power Table, if you're not already, um, that is thepowertable.co, both on Instagram and on our website as well.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Beautiful. All right. Well, for now, we'll wrap up another episode of Taylor and Steph doing their thing and talking about fun, important, impactful topics for your business. And see you next time because now it feels like there's definitely going to be a next time. Thanks, Taylor.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

Thank you.